Typically, a sports enthusiast viewing a sports event buys a player program or roster to obtain names and other biographical information regarding the players of a team. The enthusiast can, at his/her convenience, also compare one player's biographical information with a competitor's. Since a program or roster is usually printed just before game time, this biographical information is usually both current and accurate. The availability of biographical information enhances an enthusiast's viewing experience.
However, wide television coverage of sports events has removed a large segment of the viewing crowd from the live arena area where programs are traditionally sold. In addition, today's player programs do not necessarily provide the easiest access to player names or biographical data. The program has become largely an advertising tool. Program formats are not geared to provide swift access to player information especially during a rapidly moving game, but usually are designed to bury the data so that the user will be forced to view as many advertisements as possible.
Some electronic devices exist which provide access to sports data in various formats. Typical of these devices are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,977,503 and 4,890,229, issued to Rudnick, et al. Rudnick discloses a sports information retrieval device which displays statistics on a player's cumulative past performance. A user is required to enter the name of a particular player or team via an alphabetic keyboard and, once a match is made with the device's memory, the previous or past year's statistics on a particular player's performance are displayed. While Rudnick's devices allow for retrieval of limited data regarding a particular player, the retrieval steps are optimized principally for statistical data retrieval on a specific team or player (e.g., cumulative lifetime batting average, etc.). More importantly, the additional electronics and programming code required for name matching increases the complexity and cost of the device.
Other information retrieval devices exist which utilize searching algorithms to retrieve data from inexact input queries. U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,618, issued to David, discloses a self contained electronic spelling machine. A predetermined location indicia in the input word provides an exact matrix check with every word in the dictionary in memory. The user inputs letters Corresponding to a presupposed spelling of a word and the device corroborates the word's spelling or provides the word that most closely matches the inputted pattern. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,019, issued to Squillante et al., discloses a combined dictionary/thesaurus unit whose operation is similar to David's device. Finally, Hardy et al., under U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,705, discloses a spelling education hand-held device that validates the spelling of an inputted word or refers the user to a printed dictionary supplied with the unit, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,775, issued to McWherter, shows an electronic word game machine that uses a random number generator to select and display a random word upon demand.
In the electronic hand-held games area, U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,760, issued to Soski and Levine, discloses an electronic baseball game, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,323, issued to Minkoff and Oliphant, shows an electronic football game. These devices entertain a user by responding to a user's real-time inputs geared toward a game goal, and the devices use internally stored data to influence the device's response to the user's inputs.
Though the above referenced devices disclose electronic hand-held data retrieval devices, of which there are many, none of these devices specifically retrieves a player's name or current biographical data regarding that player as provided in a standard game program whether televised or at a live arena. Nor do any such devices retrieve current player names or specific biographical information solely by reference to individual player numbers. Furthermore, these devices require some initial knowledge of the requested record, several sequences of steps are required to retrieve the statistical data, and the data displayed is not current, but compiled.
A strong industry need exists for a small electronic hand-held device that can quickly retrieve and display current player biographical data by reference to jersey number without inputting the player's name or team. The device must be a small calculator size unit, it should be very low cost, and contain a minimum of input buttons, and input sequences.